For our Forest School sessions over the last three weeks, we have had a strong exploratory impulse. We have explored pumpkins, using our senses, smelling the fleshy inners, and touching the different parts of the pumpkins, the slimey inners, as well as the small seeds and the smooth outer skin.
Leading on from the pumpkins we then dried the pumpkins seeds and placed them out onto the table with small plastic containers. The babies then were able to freely access this activity, I encouraged the babies to develop their fine motor skills, by picking up the seeds and placing them into the containers. We counted the seed’s into the container and back out to develop their mathematical language.
This week we have been exploring different natural object’s, such as dried oranges, limes, wooden spoons, pine cones, and off cuts of wood. I placed them out onto the table along with pots and baking trays. The children freely accessed this activity throughout the whole day. This encouraged problem solving, by trying to fit the objects into the different sized pots and trays. We have also been pretending to cook using the pots and wooden spoon, the children’s speech and language has been developing this week by saying things such as “spoon” and “ breakfast”.
Louise